LIVE Smart: Family Issues

There can be many different ways in which your family issues can impact your studies.. You may find yourself dealing with your parent's relationship breakdown / divorce or continuing issues. It may be issues relating to family finances, illness or mental health of a loved one that creates difficulty for you. You may have found yourself acting as a carer for someone in your family. Perhaps you have recently become estranged from your family. Families face a variety of problems, both large and small. Family conflict and relationship problems can include arguments, miscommunication, and misunderstanding. They also can involve deeper issues such as substance abuse, financial instability, mental illness, grief, health problems, and divorce. Sometimes, these issues exist between only two family members, and other times they spread throughout the entire family, creating extended family issues. Some issues, like grief after the loss of a loved one may be more obvious, whilst others things can be more subtle. Perhaps you have difficulties communicating with your parents or siblings.

There is support available to help - if you find that a family issue or situation has impacted on your studies, ability to focus, created difficulties with coursework or exams then it would be a good idea to speak to someone from the Student Support Team or DUSA Advice for support and advice about how to get back on track. The University Counselling Service can assist in gaining some perspective on the situation. If you are finding the impact of family issues is affecting your mental health or causing stress - you can ask for support and also make contact with your GP.

You can apply for mitigating circumstances in relation to family issues- remember to say what the impact you have had on your studies because of the situation and what your preferred outcome may be e.g. grades to take into account the mitigating circumstances, late submissions to be given no late penalties and in the case of resits, to be given as a first sitting, .